Andy Murray Pulls out of US Open Days Before Start of Tournament

Andy Murray has pulled out of the US Open two days before the start of the tournament at Flushing Meadows after failing to recover from a niggling hip injury.

Murray, 30, has not played competitively since Wimbledon, where he fell to American Sam Querry as he battled with the injury.

The British world no 2 practised all week but said on Saturday he’d failed to overcome the pain and would have to sit out the year’s last major.

“It’s too sore for me to win the tournament and ultimately that’s what I was here to try and do,” said the Scot, who recently lost his world no 1 ranking to Spaniard Rafa Nadal.

Murray has battled injury since Wimbledon. Image: ATP

The 2012 US Open champion was forced to pull out of tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati as he underwent rehabilitation in the UK, but travelled to New York on 18 August with the expectation of being fit for the tournament.

“I did pretty much everything that I could to get myself ready here and took a number of weeks off after Wimbledon,” added Murray.

“I obviously spoke to a lot of hip specialists. Tried resting, rehabbing, to try and get myself ready here.

“I was actually practising OK the last few days.”

Asked if he had risked potential further damage by attempting to play in New York, Murray added: “I certainly wouldn’t have been hurting myself more by trying to play. It was more a question of whether it would settle down in time.

“Obviously I kind of ran out of time. Maybe if I’d been able to take a little bit more time off.”

Murray joins last year’s champion Stan Wawrinka and finalist Novak Djokovic in a lengthy list of absentees in New York, leaving Nadal and Roger Federer as favourites going into the tournament Monday.